I was about 50 years old when I became an alcoholic. I had a stressful job and began drinking as a way to cope with it. My habit started out small, but gradually grew, and within a few years I was a full-blown addict with constant physical cravings and obsessive thoughts about alcohol. Fears of losing my health and job and husband and children made me try everything I could think of to stop on my own. But I just couldn’t stop. 

​

Eventually I googled AA and found the Club 12 web site and saw that it was open all day every day, and I could drop in at whatever time I finally got up enough nerve to do it. It took a few weeks, but that time came, and I walked in and joined a meeting. I was 54 years old. I knew nothing at all about AA, what the 12 Steps were, or how any of it worked. I just knew I was desperate.

​

I felt nervous and out of place, and nobody else looked like me. But as people began to share and I began to listen, I felt strangely interested, and strangely excited, and strangely at home. 

​

Because they described their lives before AA, and it was my life of addiction they were describing. It was my first time to hear from someone who knew what I was going through first-hand, who really ‘got’ it, and that was revolutionary. They talked about how they had learned in AA to turn their lives over to God, and He had taken away their addiction. And they were happy, and treated each other like they were family. I hung on every word they said, because they gave me hope that there might be a solution for me, too.

 

I kept going to meetings and listening, and found a home in the weekday morning women’s meetings. I got a sponsor and started working, and living, the 12 Steps. I had always believed in God and tried to follow Him, but the AA program showed me areas of my life where I had shut Him out and how that had led to my drinking problem. My spiritual life became much deeper and more powerful. 

 

And it worked. I was able to stop drinking. And now I’ve been sober for 3 years. AA promises a life that is happy and joyous and free, and that promise has come true for me. My fears are gone and I have a renewed sense of purpose and zeal for being of service to others. I could not be more grateful to God, to AA, and to Club 12 for being there when I needed them, and now I want to do all I can to help others find the sobriety and peace I have found.

​

Kathy B.